When is it time to put aside childish things?

by **Fartsniffage** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:13 pm

Last week I watch a the first in a series on the Beeb called James May's Toy Stories where he built an Airfix Spitfire scaled at 1:1 and it reminded me how much I enjoyed building model aircraft when I was a kid. So this morning I toddled off to the local model shop and bought a 1:72 model of a Vulcan bomber with all the required paraphernalia and I've spent about 4 hours painting and glueing this afternoon. I'm still building the landing gear and cockpit so I've not got very far but it's been more fun than I remember having in quite a while, I'm covered in paint and possibly a little high from the glue fumes.

This got me thinking, what was it the denizens of NSG enjoyed doing as a child that you've stopped? Why did you stop? Have you ever gone back to something you used to love and not had it live up to the memories?

by **Jello Biafra** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:16 pm

All of them? Never.

by **Buffett and Colbert** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:18 pm

I do play with my ~~dolls~~ action figures occasionally.

Ok, no not really...

by **Tokos** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:25 pm

Airfix is fine for adults. Think about it the people who do these things are either spotty teenagers or 35-year-old Bill Bailey lookalikes.

by **Dyakovo** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:28 pm

Fartsniffage wrote:When is it time to put aside childish things?

When they've worn out...

Fartsniffage wrote:This got me thinking, what was it the denizens of NSG enjoyed doing as a child that you've stopped? Why did you stop? Have you ever gone back to something you used to love and not had it live up to the memories?

I used to build model airplanes, I don't do it anymore because I don't have the patience for it anymore...

by **UNIverseVERSE** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:34 pm

I'm just going to quote CS Lewis on this, as he says what I think rather accurately:

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

by **The Beautiful Darkness** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:49 pm

Never! Why give up something harmless that gives you pleasure?

by **Nanatsu no Tsuki** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:45 pm

There is never a time to completely cast aside childish things. If you let the child in you die, life loses all fun. Just on Thursday I went to Build-a-Bear Factory and got myself a stuffed bunny. I even named her, Usa-chan (she has a cute birth certificate and a cyber bunny avatar in www.buildabearville.com. I sleep with it, I don't care. :blush:

"Skallvia" · by **Maurepas** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:50 pm

Youre supposed to do that? :blink:

"Skallvia" · by **Maurepas** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:51 pm

Nanatsu no Tsuki wrote:There is never a time to completely cast aside childish things. If you let the child in you die, life loses all fun. Just on Thursday I went to Build-a-Bear Factory and got myself a stuffed bunny. I even named her, Usa-chan (she has a cute birth certificate and a cyber bunny avatar in http://www.buildabearville.com. I sleep with it, I don't care.

Silly Nanatsu, you know that just increases your standing amongst the cult,

by **Ashmoria** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:52 pm

the time to put aside childish things is when they dont interest you any more.

people have kids so that they can enjoy model building again. its one of the few upsides to parenthood.

by **Czardas** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:52 pm

Depends. I either never had childish things, or will always be a child, depending on whether you take the OP's or CS Lewis's definition of the phrase.

For some reason, by the age of eight (at minimum) I had already convinced myself that taking pleasure in anything at all was a sign of weakness. It was presumably around then that I tried to stop playing with toys (not entirely succeeding, but when I did play with them, refusing to admit that I was enjoying it), and also became heavily ashamed of any books I read and the like, for reasons that are still unknown to me. Regardless, I don't ever remembering having enough of a childhood that there are "childish" things from that time that I might still want to do.

by **Nanatsu no Tsuki** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:52 pm

Maurepas wrote:
Nanatsu no Tsuki wrote:There is never a time to completely cast aside childish things. If you let the child in you die, life loses all fun. Just on Thursday I went to Build-a-Bear Factory and got myself a stuffed bunny. I even named her, Usa-chan (she has a cute birth certificate and a cyber bunny avatar in http://www.buildabearville.com. I sleep with it, I don't care.

Silly Nanatsu, you know that just increases your standing amongst the cult,

But, Maury, it's true. I luv mah Bunny! :hug:

by **Alexlantis** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:00 pm

Well, I never have stopped being a little kid inside, but being fourteen it hasn't been long. I've got cousins who are six and two and I find my inner child instantly when they're around. In fact, I'd guess that anyone without an inner child isn't human.

by **Tunizcha** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:04 pm

The childish id within me has died long ago.

by **EvilDarkMagicians** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:06 pm

Tunizcha wrote:The childish id within me has died long ago.

That's quite sad to hear.

I think society does try to force you to leave your 'childish' ways behind.

by **Tunizcha** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:11 pm

EvilDarkMagicians wrote:
Tunizcha wrote:The childish id within me has died long ago.

That's quite sad to hear.
I think society does try to force you to leave your 'childish' ways behind.

I don't really think so. It has made me realize that I have a limited time on this big blue planet, and if I want to live a happy life, I'm going to have to build it starting right now.
Sooociiiety treats me, a child, as a child, so it expects me to have 'childish' ways, which I don't have.

by **Lackadaisical2** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:12 pm

The Beautiful Darkness wrote:Never! Why give up something harmless that gives you pleasure?

this. As well as the Lewis quote.

by **LOL ANARCHY NUBZ** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:12 pm

As an eight year old, I haven't quite got there.

by **Alexlantis** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:13 pm

EvilDarkMagicians wrote:
Tunizcha wrote:The childish id within me has died long ago.

That's quite sad to hear.
I think society does try to force you to leave your 'childish' ways behind.

Agreed, society is evil. I say that as long as noone's being hurt and no laws are broken, go for it. What others think doesn't matter a bit.

"Skallvia" · by **Maurepas** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:14 pm

Lackadaisical2 wrote:
The Beautiful Darkness wrote:Never! Why give up something harmless that gives you pleasure?

this. As well as the Lewis quote.

I saw what you did there,

by **Czardas** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:15 pm

EvilDarkMagicians wrote:
Tunizcha wrote:The childish id within me has died long ago.

That's quite sad to hear.
I think society does try to force you to leave your 'childish' ways behind.

Not really. Society tends to encourage people to be rather childish in many respects, in fact.

Of course, maybe I'm just approaching this from the wrong side since I never had a childhood to give up in that sense.

by **Lackadaisical2** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:15 pm

Maurepas wrote:
Lackadaisical2 wrote:
The Beautiful Darkness wrote:Never! Why give up something harmless that gives you pleasure?

this. As well as the Lewis quote.

I saw what you did there,

shhhh... It didn't sound right when I typed it either. Makes much more sense now.

by **Lackadaisical2** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:17 pm

Czardas wrote:
EvilDarkMagicians wrote:
Tunizcha wrote:The childish id within me has died long ago.

That's quite sad to hear.
I think society does try to force you to leave your 'childish' ways behind.

Not really. Society tends to encourage people to be rather childish in many respects, in fact.

Of course, maybe I'm just approaching this from the wrong side since I never had a childhood to give up in that sense.

they tell them to be "childish", what they really are telling people to be is selfish and shortsighted. Which is just the bad parts of being a child, but as we can see so many adults acting in such a way, its really a misnomer.

"Skallvia" · by **Maurepas** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:17 pm

Czardas wrote:
EvilDarkMagicians wrote:
Tunizcha wrote:The childish id within me has died long ago.

That's quite sad to hear.
I think society does try to force you to leave your 'childish' ways behind.

Not really. Society tends to encourage people to be rather childish in many respects, in fact.

Of course, maybe I'm just approaching this from the wrong side since I never had a childhood to give up in that sense.

Depends, Society discourages it in the form of needing to go out and get a job, etc...

It Encourages it in the form of marketing towards it, knowing that nostalgia is a rather driving force once youve gotten that job, etc...

When is it time to put aside childish things?

When is it time to put aside childish things?

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